The Last Time They Danced
by CaBil
Summary: ﻿Willow, Xander and Buffy show why they are friends. Spoilers for up to the beginning of Season 6


After the favorable reaction to my two more recent pieces, I have found my one other Buffy  
fanfic. Written last year during the break before the final run of episodes, it made a few generic  
guesses about the end of the season. This has only been posted before on the newsgroups. There  
is a copyright notice at the end in order to maintain surprise.  
  
The Last Time They Danced  
  
  
The last time they danced was at the Magic Shop. Despite it being a store, it was also their home.  
Their place, just like the library was, and like how their meetings at Giles' home just never felt  
right. It was where they were the gang, rather than just individuals that were caught up in  
something bigger than themselves.   
  
It was still early in the spring semester, as they had just started to figure out how bad of a problem  
Glory was going to be. Xander had gotten out of work early since the job the construction crew  
was working on had hit a snag, and stopped by the shop to reassure Anya that he hadn't strayed in  
the last six hours with the requisite kisses and discrete gropes when they thought Giles wasn't  
paying attention. Giles was working inventory desperately trying to not pay attention. Willow,  
Buffy, and Tara had walked over from the University after classes, hit the Expresso Pump, and  
now were all on slight caffeine highs, with Willow mostly, but Tara trying to help, to keep Buffy  
from thinking too much about Riley and how they had parted. They all joined Xander at the table,  
and started working on the pile of books that they needed to double check, looking for any  
information that they could find on Glory. Anya, suitably reassured, was working the register, was  
alternately haranguing and encouraging customers.   
  
It was Xander who started humming it first. He didn't even realize what he was doing, not really.  
He was just sitting in the chair, trying to decipher the badly calligraphed words, and he just started  
humming the tune. He was never quite sure why. Maybe it was some long suppressed impulse that  
had been learned in the library, of reading pages that had ragged edges and a slight mildew smell,  
of the mildly uncomfortable chair that could keep one awake no matter how boring the book, and  
the silent but still felt presence of his friends had created an association, a permission in his mind.   
  
Willow took it up with a couple of bars. She and Xander had been friends forever after all, and  
when she was at her most unconscious level, they could think and react as one. And she had  
watched the show with him when they were little, perhaps not as religiously as he had, but enough  
times that the tune was well embedded in her mind. It wasn't until Buffy started humming it along  
with them that the tune strengthened, and they were hitting each and every note and chord. They  
were her best friends after all, her closest friends, the only people she knew and trusted and loved  
because they were the same. Giles was her lost father, Joyce was her mother, Dawn her sister,  
Angel and Riley had been her lovers, but only Willow and Xander were her friends, confidants,  
equals, who followed her, and stood by her and choose her to be with not because of duty, or  
blood, or lust/love, but because of simply because of who she was. They were willing to follow  
her anywhere, and so she was willing to do the same for them. Including unconsciously following  
their lead in a tune.   
  
They finally realized what they were doing when Willow felt the weight of Tara's expression on  
her. She looked up to see Tara's questioning look, and it took a moment for her to realize what it  
was for. When she did, she did something she hadn't expected.   
  
Willow smiled.   
  
And then, putting a little more feeling into the tune, looked over to Buffy and Xander, who were  
startled into awareness of their humming by the combination of the sensation of Willow's look and  
increased volume. Buffy assumed a look of happy puzzlement over what she was doing, and  
Xander just grinned. Now with their full awareness, they just looked at each, happy for a reason  
they couldn't quite name, humming the tune.   
  
And as the tune hit the right spot, Willow surprised herself by belting out a line as she had  
remembered it. She never had before, always had to be coaxed into it by either Buffy or Xander,  
but the last time they had done this was long ago in the library, and Willow wasn't that girl  
anymore.   
  
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo,"   
  
And at this point, Tara's look escalated from mere curiosity to outright astonishment. Then Buffy  
picked up the lyric just where she always had.   
  
"Where Are You?"   
  
Anya merely looked, quirked an eyebrow, and wrote it off as simply one of those things that  
humans do. Giles just turned around, lost in a memory he had thought they had forgotten. Then  
Xander did his part, rising out of chair as he did.   
  
"You're ready and you're willing!"   
  
He added a false guitar riff that had never existed in the original, and doubled the willing, which  
he always had, claiming it made it 'rock' more. He had never bought Oz's arguments to the  
contrary.   
  
The few other customers in the store had by then had turned to look, wondering what was going  
on, but Buffy and Willow were already on their feet. After all, this was their place, not some  
transient customers, not some high school kid's looking to salvage a project at the last minute. All  
three of them looked at each other as they sang the next line.   
  
"If we can count on you Scooby Doo, I know we'll catch that villain."   
  
And then, still singing, Buffy began what they always used to do when they sang their song, with  
Willow and Xander quickly following.  
  
They danced.   
  
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You? We got some work to do now."  
  
It wasn't how they danced at the Bronze last night, with their loves, either present or missing. It  
was just the three of them. And they were back in that frightening first year, when they reached  
out to each for the first time and discovered that they needed each other. And so they danced as  
they had then.   
  
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You? We need some help from you now."   
  
Buffy danced in her "I'm sex kitten, oh look at me, I'm merely here to drive the guys crazy" way,  
which she always hoped that year that would bring Angel out on the dance floor each and every  
time she had done it but had succeeded so rarely.   
  
"Come on Scooby-Doo, I see you... pretending you got a sliver"   
  
Xander danced in his 'Hi, I'm a geek god' manner, elbows moving far more than necessary, that  
had always been his way of trying to attract the ladies, but usually ended up inflicting bruises on  
anyone that wandered too close.   
  
"But you're not fooling me, cause I can see, the way you shake and shiver"   
  
Willow danced in her "Umm, sorry, but my friends dragged me out here on the dance floor" way,  
her swaying not as impressive as it once was without her long hair to swish back and forth, but  
her now shorter hair making her movements seem more measured, more controlled, her brief arm  
movements continuing the impression of shy girl not quite at home with herself. But her smile, her  
smile told the world she was happy.   
  
It was the same smile that could be found on Xander's and Buffy's faces.   
  
And so they danced.   
  
"You know we got a mystery to solve, so Scooby Doo be ready for your act."   
  
It wasn't that they danced well. It was just that it was beautiful. It was an intimate moment with  
witnesses. Just the three of them and the whole store watching. Like all intimate moments that are  
shared, it was embarrassing, sweet, awkward, true, ungainly, poignant and revealing all at the  
same time.   
  
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You. We're ready and We're willing."  
  
They were the Scooby Gang.   
  
"If we can count on you Scooby Doo, I know we'll catch that villain"   
  
And this was their time.   
  
*****   
  
It ended eventually, of course. After three or four times around the song, they couldn't keep  
dancing anymore. Not because they were tired, but because they couldn't keep dancing when all  
they wanted to do is hug each other. And so they half laughing, giggling, crying, ended up  
collapsed together, each being held up standing only by the fact that there were two other bodies  
to lean against.   
  
Eventually, the outside world intruded into their thoughts, and they looked about, wiping their  
eyes, hoping that no one really noticed they little impromptu singing and dancing confession.   
  
Giles was just looking at them, not seeing them, but the younger, more carefree ones that had  
existed once upon a time in his library. Anya didn't quite understand what had happened, but all  
that mattered was that Xander was happy, and neither Buffy or Willow was trying to grope him.  
And Tara looked at Willow, and she felt the heat that was in Tara's gaze, for Tara understood the  
need for a bond that secret and open, and was so strong that allowed you to ignore the world, and  
that was just one more reason why she loved Willow. For the first time in days, Riley's absence  
wasn't even felt.   
  
As for the few customers that were in the store, no really cared what they thought.   
  
After some joking around, critiquing of dance styles, and general confusion on their part, (and a  
rarely animated Tara 'showing' something to Willow in the back for a few minutes, with them  
coming back slightly mussed) they finally sat back down and picked up the books again, but this  
time, this time it wasn't like it was work, or that their lives and all of reality was on the line again.   
  
They did it because they did it together.   
  
*****   
  
That was the last time they did the dance. After their final confrontation with Glory, and the prices  
they all paid, it was so hard to find the guileless, effortless innocence that the dance demanded.  
And when the memories of that had faded, they were too old, to far removed from the immediacy  
of their high school emotions and feelings that they engendered to be able to unconsciously call  
them back up again. And they could never find the heart to fake it, since it would be not just a lie  
to themselves, but to the others.   
  
But they were still the Scooby gang   
  
****  
  
Author's note: Scooby Doo lyrics taken from  
http://classictv.about.com/tvradio/classictv/cs/themesonglyrics/index.htm and is the property of  
it's copyright holders, Hanna-Barbera. 


End file.
